The Maple Leaf Rag

I've received quite a few messages lately about Christmas in Canada, the traditions and the customs. Instead of answering each message, I decided to make entries in my blog on this topic so everyone could read about it. 

Right now, at least here in Toronto, the weather is cold and there is snow on the ground. That's the first ingredient for a perfect Christmas. Yesterday, my family went out to my father-in-laws tree farm and cut our Christmas tree. There was no room in the car for it so he will deliver it next week when he visits. Each year we choose an evergreen tree to put in our living room. When it is up and stable, we decorate it with strings of lights and many other decorations, some purchased and some home-made. 

Once the tree is decorated presents appear beneath it, as if by magic! There is a tradition here that involves checking out who is going to get the biggest box! It's a wonderful time of year for the family to be together and spend time laughing and doing traditional Christmas things. More about this in my next blog entry. 

Tell me about your traditions! Leave a comment and tell us how you spend your time before the big day.

For many years Africa has been called the Dark Continent in literature and the media. In the last 30 or 40 years that term has rarely been used. Writers and the media seem to have chosen to ignore Africa almost completely. National Geographic is an exception but there seems to be a concentration on the wildlife in Africa as opposed to the politics of the continent.

I received a comment on my last blog entry from someone in Tunisia asking me what I thought of North Africa. I had written about some problems that people in other areas of the world were having and this person felt I had ignored North Africa. 

As far as the Western politicians and media is concerned, Africa isn't a popular topic at all. The problem seems to be that the people in Africa seem to be mostly black! If they are not black then, my god, they are Muslim! As we saw in Rawanda and in Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia one must be white and Christian or white and Jewish to be considered worth saving, according to the Western 'thinkers'. If you are anything 'different' your problems are put on the back-burner to be dealt with after the 'ethnic cleansing' has already taken place. 

The Aids pandemic in parts of Africa is a looming disaster for the world at large. Education plays an important role in preventing this slow killer from spreading completely around the world. Meanwhile, the US is waging a war against 'terrorism' in Iraq that is driving that country into bankruptcy. The billions wasted every week in Iraq could very easily eliminate the Aids threat completely in a very short time.

Finally, there is a problem with the perception of the World of Islam here in the West.  This perception has persisted since the American hostages were kidnapped in Iran back in the 1979. I believe that, up to that time, Muslims were thought of as different but they were not considered a threat to the West. That changed on November 4, 1979. Since then the Western media has presented Muslims as wild eyed terrorists in movies, print and television. This perception is compounded by the vicious acts of terror in Iraq (by both sides), in Afghanistan and, of course, right in America's front yard on September 11, 2001. Muslims will have to do a tremendous PR job before the Western media changes its mind on this basically beautiful religion.

So what is the step by step process for Africa? Educate women as well as men. Change the social stigma of rape in these parts of the world. (Hint: It's the men not the women that are the problem!) Become politically aware. Speak out against those who twist a religion completely for their own gain. Speak out against repressive laws against women and their freedom, against repressive laws and attitudes towards gays and lesbians (God created them too), and, most of all, try to interpret what people really mean when they say something. Are your religious leaders telling you the truth? Are you politicians speaking the truth or lies? Does the giant Western media machine have ulterior motives behind what it tells you is the truth? Your step by step process begins by picking up the newspaper or a history book and reading. The smarter you are, the better your world will be. 

As Charlie Brown once said, "Life sure is strange. And they say you only come this way once....what did I come this way for?" That's one of my favourite lines from that comic strip. 

Sometimes I'm sure that many of you wonder the same thing. I talk to people in China who feel stressed because of the competition for jobs, who work six days a week and who can only have one child. Other people in Turkey want to come to North America but are treated as third class people by the US and Canada. I talk to other people in the Middle East who feel that their culture is backward and needs to accept the present before their countries can move into the future. 

What does this have to do with English? Well, all of these people, including myself, can make a change one step at a time. That's how we learn, step by step, bit by bit. Sometimes we take baby steps and sometimes we take huge adult steps but little by little we get closer to where we want to go. 

Don't give up! Keep at it. If you only learn three words a day, you will have a vocabulary of over 100 by the end of a month, over 600 in 6 months and well over 1000 by the end of the first year. Trust me...you are better than you think you are! Start now and let me know where you are a year from today.